Springfield school district looks to add 70 positions

$14 million in new spending proposed

Apr. 10, 2013

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Board officers

With a 4-3 vote, the new Springfield school board elected Kris Callen as president. She has been on the board since 2003 and previously served as vice president and president. The yes votes included Callen, Tom Prater, Gerry Lee and new member Annie Busch. Denise Fredrick, Bruce Renner and Andy Hosmer voted no. Both Renner and Hosmer were also nominated, but Renner declined the nomination. Fredrick, on the board since 2011, was unanimously elected the board vice president. Busch and Lee, an incumbent, were elected to three-year terms on April 2. Both were sworn in Tuesday.

Proposed new positions

The Springfield school district’s proposed 2013-14 budget includes the addition of more than 70 full-time equivalents. An FTE is a unit that represents the workload for a typical employed individual. One FTE could represent a full-time employee or two or more part-time employees. • 13 teachers to maintain class sizes at the elementary and middle school level • 11.5 paraprofessional support staff to serve as site behavior interventionists • 5.65 teachers to lower high school classroom ratio from 29.5 to 29 students per teachers • 5.25 counselors • 5 social workers • 5 coordinators of site interventions, or CSIs, at middle school level • 4 custodians at high schools • 4 — one teacher and three paraprofessionals for special education day treatment program • 2.6 nurses to add staff or increase hours so all schools have full-time nursing coverage • 2 staff members to provide additional network staff • 1 online developer • 1 new school police officer • 1 staffer for bus GPS and camera equipment maintenance and repair • 1 teacher for English Language Learners • 1 groundskeeper • 1 facilities preventive maintenance staffer and painter • 1 benefits and compensation manager • .6 teacher for Study Alternative Programs As part of the total, the following positions were previously committed by the board for 2013-14: • 4.5 positions in transportation to add routes • 1.44 for facilities upgrades and support to help with alternative programs at Study • 1 Middle College teacher

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As part of nearly $14 million in new spending proposed for the 2013-14 school year, the Springfield school district wants to add about 70 positions.

Roughly one-third of those would be classroom teachers.

The proposed $227 million operating budget includes additional positions typically found in schools such as nurses, counselors, bus drivers and custodians. But, it also includes five social workers and more than a dozen support positions aimed at helping middle school students in severe danger of becoming dropouts and students in high poverty schools with chronic behavior problems.

Chief Financial Officer Steve Chodes presented details of the preliminary budget during Tuesday’s study session. The board approved a $212 million operating budget for this year.

The $13.9 million in new spending includes $10.5 million generated by a tax levy increase approved a week ago by voters, an increase in local assessed valuation —the value assigned to property for the purposes of determining the annual taxes owed — and revenue that came in higher than expected or remained unspent this year. The other $3.4 million, primarily for one-time expenses, would require dipping into the district’s “rainy day” fund.

The bulk of the new spending is earmarked to add staff and boost staff pay and benefits. About 80 percent of the budget is personnel, and those costs, especially if there are pay increases, increase at least slightly each year.

Bruce Renner, who has been on the school board since 1994, said he worries about the “amount of ongoing expense” that is part of the preliminary budget. A final budget must be approved by June 30.

“My real concern is not can we meet this budget in 2013-14 — because I think we probably could — my concern is 2014-15, being able to not only fund it, but you have salaries and benefits again,” he said. “…It starts to stack.”

He urged caution because the district has employed support positions, including social workers, before, but cut those when there was ebb in funding.

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“We’ve been there and kind of rode that roller coaster, and I’m real concerned with the additional people we’ve identified or different positions, because then some of those (positions) were the first ones out when we had to cut,” he said.

Chodes said the alternative would be to sit on the additional funding and increase the reserves. He said there was a rationale behind each proposed position.

“We looked at the strategic plans,” he said. “One of the big components of that is supporting the classroom.”

Additional staff positions are sprinkled through the proposed spending plan. Here is a breakdown:

• $7.1 million — Placeholder for staff pay and benefit increases. Specifics will be determined through collective bargaining process with multiple employee groups.

• $4.2 million — “Critical needs” identified by Superintendent Norm Ridder’s cabinet, based on requests from schools, departments and programs. Includes seven new buses and 53 staff positions, including five teachers at the high school level and social workers, counselors, nurses and other support staff.

• $1 million — Improve softball fields at Glendale and Kickapoo high schools.

• $810,000 — Spending increases for next year that have already been committed. Items include transportation for athletic teams, higher insurance premiums and curriculum adoption.